Make CEFC hard to abolish: Broadbent

Jillian Broadbent said she had recommended the fund’s legislation be changed to make sure its funds be appropriated, which would make it harder to abolish.
Photo: Nic Walker

by
Gemma Daley

Clean Energy Finance Corp chairwoman
Jillian Broadbent
says the opposition’s two senior economic frontbenchers turned down a briefing on the $10 billion fund and that she had recommended legislation to make it harder to abolish.

Ms Broadbent said Coalition finance spokesman
Andrew Robb
and shadow treasurer
Joe Hockey
declined her invitation to discuss how the CEFC worked and why it was necessary.

“They have not been very interested in speaking to me despite my preparedness to do so," Ms Broadbent told ABC Radio yesterday morning, adding that Mr Hockey and Mr Robb had not replied to her invitation.

Ms Broadbent said she had recommended the appropriation of the fund be tied with its legislation, which would make it harder to abolish. The Coalition has promised to do away with the CEFC and has described it as a slush fund.

Mr Robb described the claims about the meetings as “completely false".

He said the offer of an April 17 Canberra briefing from Ms Broadbent was made on April 11.

On April 16, Ms Broadbent was advised Mr Robb would not be in Canberra on that day “but would be happy to meet with you at a mutually agreeable time in Sydney".

“We will scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and of course scrap the carbon tax, and stop taxpayers’ money being wasted through these politically motivated and destructive ventures," Mr Robb said.

It warned that the new fund would face challenges taking a commercial approach while investing in projects unable to obtain private sector finance. “There are some very simple mechanisms where the CEFC could invest where the banks are already investing but extend the term of the facility," Ms Broadbent said.

“The whole idea is we co-invest with private financiers, we’re not going to be doing investment on our own.

“The prerequisite really is that you have a co-financier there but the CEFC is offering concessionality either in the form of the term of the debt or the price of the debt or just the availability of the debt."